McBrearty’s class rescues Donegal
DONEGAL manager Rory Gallagher hailed Patrick McBrearty a man for the big occasion after settling an epic All-Ireland qualifier tie with a 73rd minute winning point.
Meath and Donegal have met sparingly in the Championship but battled like old rivals at Páirc Tailteann and were level on 11 occasions in front of a large home crowd.
McBrearty, still just 24, but on the Donegal team six years, showed all his experience and quality to break the stalemate with just seconds remaining.
Meath played a counter-attacking game again and had 15 men back late on but McBrearty launched a kick from well over 40 metres over the defence and, crucially, over the bar.
It brought an end to a thrilling encounter that was lit up not just by McBrearty’s seven points but by the attacking dynamism of wing-back Ryan McHugh.
A Kilcar colleague of McBrearty’s, McHugh’s 61st-minute goal put Donegal three clear and looked to have finally killed off Meath’s brave challenge.
But the Royals netted themselves only moments later through Cillian O’Sullivan and actually led with 67 minutes played though couldn’t hold on as Donegal’s experience told.
‘Patrick has played for Donegal a long time and when we needed him today, along with others, he stood up and showed the quality player that he is because he was being very tightly marked,’ said manager Gallagher of McBrearty.
‘Patrick, you know, he’s football mad, number one. I know him now seven or eight years. He just lives for football. He kind of had to do two pre-seasons this year, he got himself in great shape and then a difficult injury put him out for six or eight weeks.
‘He’s worked exceptionally hard and you seen him when he came on against Antrim how enthusiastic he was. When Patrick is playing football he’s happy and he’s showing great leadership.’
Donegal advance to play Cork or the beaten Connacht finalists in Round 4A of the qualifiers in a fortnight though it was tough on Meath who fought valiantly in their first game against Division 1 opposition for over a year.
Meath manager Andy McEntee made a beeline towards referee Derek O’Mahoney at full-time to remonstrate with the Tipperary official.
But Donegal were just about the better team overall and could have scored two goals late in the first half.
Eoghan Ban Gallagher and Eoin McHugh firstly combined during a superb burst upfield that was halted close to goals by a Conor McGill interception.
And Hugh McFadden had a goal ruled out in injury-time for an apparent square ball infringement.
Meath escaped on both occasions and punished Donegal on the counter-attack to pick off points and tied up the game at 0-7 apiece at half-time.
The Royal County were flattered to be on level terms but took advantage of their good fortune after the restart.
They led on several occasions in the third quarter of the game and were 0-11 to 0-9 up after 50 minutes.
Donegal haven’t lost a qualifier game since 2010 though and took control of proceedings with points from Frank McGlynn and McBrearty, two.
Then came the McHugh goal which was a wonderful move upfield that the half-back finished off by palming to the net.
It looked like Meath had finally been shaken off but they responded with that O’Sullivan goal when he fired home right footed from close range.
Bryan Menton then raised a huge cheer from the crowd with a booming 64th minute point that put Meath 1-13 to 1-12 ahead but Donegal brought all their big game experience to bear in those frantic closing minutes. Donegal: MA McGinley; C Ward, N McGee, K Gillespie; P McGrath, R McHugh, F McGlynn (M McHugh 60); J McGee, M Murphy; EB Gallagher, C Thompson (M McElhinney 43), E McHugh; M O’Reilly (K Lacey 58), H McFadden (J Brennan 48), P McBrearty. Scorers: P McBreaty 0-7 (3f), M Murphy 0-5 (2f), R McHugh 1-0, J McGee 0-2, F McGlynn 0-1. Meath: P O’Rourke; D Keogan, C McGill, M Burke; P Harnan, B Power, S McEntee (D Tobin 61); B Menton, B Conlon; R O Coileain, J McEntee, G Reilly; S Tobin (M Newman h-t), C O’Sullivan (E Wallace BC, 67), D Lenihan. Scorers: D Lenihan 0-7 (7f), C O’Sullivan 1-1, G Reilly, R O Coileain, D Keogan, S McEntee, J McEntee, B Menton 0-1. Referee: D O’Mahoney (Tipperary).